Free Dark Wolf Rising (Heart of the Shifter) by Stephanie Rowe Page B

click, and a low murmur that she'd heard a split second before Jace had shifted, when only his eyes had changed. "Wait." She sat up, replaying it in her head. "I heard someone call, before Jace shifted. It was a man..." She closed her eyes, willing her mind to recall. "He was reporting a murder," she whispered. She opened her eyes to look at Cash. "A murder that hadn't happened yet."
    He swore under his breath and pulled out his phone. He switched to his voice messages and hit play. "Was this his voice?"
    A man's voice filled the room, echoing from Cash's phone. "We're going in tonight. Be there at seven." His voice slithered over her skin, the cold dangerous tones that she immediately recognized. It was the same one she'd heard in the hotel, when Cash had taken her out.
    She sat up. "That's it. That's the voice I heard. Damien?"
    He nodded, hope dancing in his eyes. "Damien reported the woman's murder before Jace had even shifted. What does that tell you?"
    "He knew it was going to happen, and he didn't want to stop it. He wanted Jace to do it, and to get caught." She met Cash's gaze. "I think you're right, Cash."
    He sank down on the bed next to her, pressing his face to his hands as he rested his elbows on his quads. "Son of a bitch," he said softly. "I thought I was making shit up." His shoulders started to shake. "He's innocent. Jace is innocent."
    Bryn wrapped her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder, just like they had so many times before. Cash was a badass, deadly, and lethal, but he still cared so deeply for those few who mattered to him. She decided that she wanted to meet Jace someday, because he had to be quite extraordinary for Cash to believe in him so strongly. "So, what do we do now?" she asked. She knew her testimony would damn Jace, and it wouldn't be enough to implicate Damien. But they had to find an answer by Thursday. It was Christmas Eve day now, and she was on the docket for the day after Christmas.
    He palmed her thigh, spreading his fingers across her leg. "I'll have Drake track down the wolves from today. If one of them will testify that Damien forced the others to attack, it's proof he can do it."
    "You think they're going to testify that they killed or attacked someone? Never."
    He swore under his breath. "They will. To save Jace."
    "At the risk of being outed as a murderous werewolf?"
    He looked at her. "I would."
    Her heart softened, and she ran her hand over his shoulder. "I know you would, Cash. But not everyone is you. And it wouldn't prove he did it this time, either. We need a confession. That's all that will work."
    He swore. "We'll never get one. He's smart, Bryn. Extremely smart." He stood up and walked across the room, pacing restlessly. "I believe he knows you were still alive in that comforter. He got too close to me, and he's too fucking good at what he does." He turned to face her. "So what was his plan? Why did he let me take you out of there?"
    She knew the answer as soon as he asked it, and she saw from the look on his face that he'd just realized it too. "Because you're the real leader of the pack, not him," she said. "He took Jace out, and you're next. You both have to be gone for him to be the alpha. Those wolves deferred to you at the hotel, not him. If you'd killed me, he would have ended it right then, and implicated you. But since you didn't, he let you go. He's planning something, Cash, something to take you down."
    Cash walked over and sat beside her again, taking her hand in his. He began tracing his fingers along the back of her hands, just as he used to when they were teens, and he was working on a problem. She smiled to herself, suspecting that he hadn't even realized he was doing it.
    "Killing you would have freed Jace," he said, his voice thoughtful as he continued to rub the back of her hand. "Since he needs Jace out of the picture, either he knew I wasn't going to kill you from the start, or he somehow had a way to still implicate Jace." He swore